By RYAN ARENA

Sports Editor

Destrehan-based Valero-St. Charles had a fast start to Wednesday’s American Legion Second District clash with Riverside-based Fatty’s Restaurant.

They’d have an even faster finish.

Valero-St. Charles scored five runs in the first inning and ten runs in the seventh to take a 20-2 victory over Fatty’s Restaurant, at Riverside.

&#8220This is something we have to go through,” said Fatty’s Restaurant Coach Britt Waguespack. &#8220These kids have to learn to compete, every inning of every game, or else this is going to happen against teams like Destrehan and Hahnville.”

Said Valero-St. Charles Coach Marty Luquet: &#8220When you’re in a groove, you want to keep playing. We’ve been playing well, swinging the bats especially, and our staff is coming around too.”

Offensively, nobody has been better than Valero-St. Charles (7-0) this summer, as it has scored 11 or more runs in each of its first seven games and has surged to the top of the Second District.

It has carried a great deal of momentum over from the prep season, which saw Destrehan get to the state quarterfinals, falling just short to eventual state champion Jesuit.

Josh Rochelle had one of the biggest days for Valero, going 2-for-5 with five RBIs, including a grand slam in the top of the seventh inning.

&#8220I wasn’t looking for any particular pitch,” Rochelle said. &#8220I just saw it, and reacted to it.”

Remy Poirrier’s home run in the third inning highlighted a dismal day for Fatty’s Restaurant (2-2, 1-2), who struggled against Valero pitcher Caleb Madere, who allowed six hits over five innings and earned the win.

&#8220We fell apart,” Poirrier said. &#8220We made too many errors and mistakes. Like Coach says, this will teach us a lesson. We need to play as a team.”

Madere struck out eight batters in his five innings of work, and was able to pitch with a sizeable lead all game long.

It was only the second game since June 11 for Fatty’s Restaurant, which has seen three of its last four games rained out.

Kyle Shnowski’s two RBI triple highlighted a five run inning for Valero-St. Charles. Joe Harrison, Hunter Tyree and Ross Terranova each had RBIs in the inning.

Valero added two runs in the third, before Poirrier homered to cut the lead to 7-1. Valero then scored two in the fourth and one in the fifth to make it 10-1.

Timmy Teague tripled and scored on a wild pitch by Madere for Fatty’s second run in the bottom of the fifth.

In the seventh, the deficit for Fatty’s went from bad to worse, as Valero scored ten runs.

&#8220My concern right now is that we get back to playing solid baseball,” Waguespack said. &#8220Hitting is contagious, that will come if we’re playing the way we need to play.”